If you are in the South East of England do please check on the Nama yasai website to see if you can benefit from this wonderful initiative.
Londoners can collect boxes from Itadaki Zen = see below

Nama yasai supply a range of restaurants and stores in London and their clients include Nobu. Their food is local (not air-freighted) and produced organically without pesticides and with laborious traditional methods.
The box scheme is a fantastic and very affordable opportunity to eat and become familiar with a range of Japanese vegetables that cannot be easily obtained in Europe. It's also a great way to support (IMHO) a very worthwhile organisation.

Even if you live nowhere near this scheme, do check out the Nama yasai website - it's a very informative site for anybody with an interest in Japanese vegetables and their cultivation.

And if you aren't workshy and fancy spending some time in the UK on a farm getting your fingers dirty, there are homestay opportunities for you there too!

Loretta, this sounds like a great program! And as you point out, a good way to become familiar with in-season Japanese vegetables. By setting up a collection point, you are once again sharing your love of food and generous spirit.

ooh, too bad i'm not in south east england!
i'd love to visit their farm and look around. and eat lots of delicious vegetables, fresh from the field, like it's supposed to be. maybe i should apply as a farm hand for a holiday.. get some fresh air and eat fun food..

I've just come back from a small food fair held at the Zen Itadakimasu organic restaurant on Kings Cross Road. It's on for the rest of today as well as tomorrow (Monday 18th October 2010)http://www.itadakizen.com/

Lots of very interesting foods including a 'home' made miso from Japan called jyoutyou miso made with rice, soybeans and flavored with garlic, ginger, bamboo leaf extract and sesame http://mannane.shop-pro.jp/?pid=21581962, bamboo leaf tea (a kit of bamboo leaves and buckwheat grouts that you need to simmer for thirty minutes http://mannane.shop-pro.jp/?pid=20803516), a delicious pickle made with a Scottish garlic that looked similar to pickled shiso seeds (unfortunately, this wasn't for sale), vegan sushi rice with Scottish seaweed, a peanut, black sesame and sea salt furikake, zakkokumai mixes, vegan kimchi (this had a good satisfying aftertaste) and I also bought a kind of kimchi pepper sauce made with chilli, mochi rice, onions, garlic and ginger http://mannane.shop-pro.jp/?pid=17258999 - I'll use this to make cucumber kimchi as I have a huge bowl of cucumbers I need to use up. And there was more besides. We also bought a bag of a Scottish stone similar to charcoal. Once it's been cleaned you put the stones in a jug, cover with water overnight and the next day you have purified, better tasting water - we're hoping it will improve some of our teas.